Snow Flurries

As I sit here and start the next update of this weird blog I started, it is SNOWING! Hopefully it’ll be a good snow. I’ve decided that not only do I want this blog to be about sailing and all the victories/losses that I am sure will accompany it, I also want it to be a peek into my life. So I will add whatever personal information I feel necessary to catch a better picture of my mental process.

Since the purchase of our boat, Erik and I have visited her the Saturday and Sunday we had off. The first day we literally stuck our noses in every hole, crevice, nook, and cranny getting excited about the possibilities. I burned some incense (since the boat smells musty) and just sat and thought for a while. And let me tell you: I am a list person! So I started writing… the endless amounts of projects started to seem overwhelming! Erik helped calm me down, explaining that we will prioritize things, only work on a couple projects at a time, and bounce ideas off each other, helping each other as needed. I am so glad I have him to stop my mind from racing. So I have ONE project that I am going to do! After that I’ll find me another one!

The first thing I am going to try to do involves the exterior wood. It is teak: a wood that durable and water resistant, thus it is used on the exterior of boats. Now maintaining teak is whole ‘nother story. There are so many options! Varnish, nothing, oil, or cetol? Well we have a teak oil on board from the previous owners, so most likely going to give that a try first! I’ll try to get some more research done and get some pictures of what I’ll be doing!
Erik will be doing a little bit more difficult task… There is one soft spot that is about dinner plate size in our roof. This is leading to a very itty bitty leak on the interior handrail. What happend is the screw that holds the handrail in place most likely started letting water in. This results in the core (which is balsa wood) rotting, becoming a “soft spot”. Soooo he is going to try to fix the leak ASAP just by preventing water to get to the handrail, and as soon as it warms up and the week is clear of precipitation he will cut open a hole and replace the bad wood with good wood.

One other big thing we are planning is when the weather is warmer to pull the boat out and check out the hull. We know she will need a new bottom paint, and plan on doing that ourselves as well! This will involve quite a bit more research. And we want to re-do the decorative stripe and name!!!

This leads me to the name of the boat… They say theres a superstition when it comes to re-naming boats. The previous owners bought the boat in 2011, and they renamed her “Aloha Maki”. They explained the meaning as “saying hello to the ocean” in Hawaiian or something along those lines. They removed the old name on the back of the boat… but never got around to painting the new name. They also mentioned they only sailed her TWO TIMES! The previous name of the boat was “Ragnar”. Which when they told Erik that he immediatley reconized the Norse mythology background, relating it to Ragnarok (a series of events including a great battle, the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water and afterward, the world will resurface anew). So let’s break this down…

1983-2011 Ragnar – sails from Canada, down the coast of Florida, into the Caribbean, and somehow makes it to East TN

2011-2014 Aloha Maki – sails twice on a lake… So we were thinking of incorporating the original name into our new name and call her RAGNAROK!!!